E-z Pass Speed Toll System Spreads To State

Street Smart

October 25, 2004|By KIMBALL PAYNE Daily Press

Starting Wednesday, Virginians will be able to drive all the way to Boston without searching for change or stopping at a tollbooth as the state's electronic Smart Tag system merges with the much-heralded E-Z Pass network.

The speed tolling system has spread rapidly since the first E-Z Pass lane was installed in New York in August 1993. The ability to dodge sputtering lines and traffic pileups without even rolling down a window is an easy sell. Drivers simply put a small receiver on the inside of their windshield, and tolls are deducted, often at reduced rates, from prepaid accounts.

Virginia launched its own system on the Dulles Toll Road in 1996, and the program quickly caught on. There are almost half a million Smart Tag boxes statewide that rack up more than 10 million electronic transactions each month. At the Coleman Bridge, three out of every four drivers pay the fee with the electronic system.

Jumping into the expanded network -- which took more than a year to work out at the Virginia Department of Transportation -- brings the commonwealth up to speed with West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. New Hampshire and Maine are set to come on line in the next year.

The program is so popular in New Jersey that the state recently opened new express E-Z Pass lanes that allow drivers to whip past tolls at 65 mph. Only two express sites are open, but the Garden State is planning to expand the program soon.

Merging with the plan doesn't just give us better access to roads, bridges and tunnels across the Northeast. It also makes Virginia an easier sell to drive-in tourists -- beach lovers, history buffs and amusement-park-goers.

The new system also comes on line as the region is once again looking at easing traffic congestion by building a third crossing of Hampton Roads.

Two private consortiums have offered unsolicited bids to build, operate and maintain a third crossing by instituting tolls at existing bridge-tunnels. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, which sets the region's transportation priorities, is in the middle of a series of studies of how tolls would affect driving patterns.

The discussion is still in its early stages -- the two toll scenarios are only now being reviewed by VDOT engineers, and the planning commission is not expected to form a consensus until spring.

Toll numbers and revenue expectations are based almost totally on the assumption that the fees could be brought in electronically. The hassle and expense of erecting and staffing tollbooths would only add stress to the region's aging transportation network.

To make an electronic third crossing work, the state needs the tagging system to continue growing, because express tolls make more sense financially and physically.

"We're not going to be able to capture 100 percent of the driving public, but we will be making more efforts at marketing," said Deborah Brown, VDOT's director of innovative finance and revenue operating systems. "We certainly wouldn't want to take a step backwards."

If drivers are still throwing change in baskets 10 years from now, then transportation planning is out the window.

LANE CLOSINGS

INTERSTATE 64

(1) Multiple lane closures both directions from Hampton Roads Center Parkway to the Interstate 664 interchange from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily and from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. nightly through Thursday, for pavement markings and barrier moves.

(2) Single lane closure westbound between Hampton Roads Center Parkway and Oyster Point Road from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today through Sunday to install conductors.

(3) Single lane closure on the ramp from 1-64 west to I-664 south from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.today through Thursday, to install light poles.

(6) Alternating lane closures on the bridge and through the tunnel from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. today through Thursday for tunnel washing. Closed right shoulder from the Norfolk shoreline to the south island from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through December, Monday through Thursday, for work on a high voltage cable.

HAMPTON

(7) Alternating lane closures on Big Bethel Road between Todds Lane and Michaels Woods Drive during nonpeak hours and between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. today through Friday for milling and paving.

SURRY COUNTY

(8) Alternating lane closures on Route 10 at the intersection of Route 680 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday for the month. *